Police say the body of Carmen Esparza was found “in a high state of putrefaction.” When she first went missing last February after leaving her gym, her friends worried the pretty brunette had been taken by a gang.

“We all thought that she might have been kidnapped and sold off into the sex trafficking industry," Javier Paz told The Mirror. “It seems that her body was back in her apartment block the whole time." Decomposition made visual ID of the body impossible. That forced investigators to ID Carmen “from implants that she had as a result of a plastic surgery operation."

Fox News reports police are investigating a businessman Esparza was involved with before she began dating an attorney.

The search of the tank started after residents complained of the strange taste of their water. Esparza was found in a filtration tank, The Mirror reported. As the family is questioning authorities about how Esparza's discovery took nearly a year, residents are also dealing with the fact the woman's remains were fouling their water supply for, what police believe was, 11 months.